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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Leftovers. Who doesn't have a love/hate relationship with them? I mean we have way more food in our house at the moment than I can ever see us eating for some reason (well, partially because I have pre-baked stuff for work in the freezer), yet neither my mom nor I (the two cooks in the house) can bear to throw anything away that is still actually edible. I never grew up wanting for any of the basics like food and shelter, and though my mom grew up in a low-middle class home she didn't go hungry either - so neither of us can explain our frugal nature (except that we have a Scottish background and she grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood - her words not mine!).

And yet, here we are for another Waste Not Want Not Wednesday (and Allergy-Free Wednesday). Granted, I planned the leftovers to make this, since it had been a while since I had made my dad anything savoury and when we were breaking down the lamb for our Easter stew my mom was leaving a lot of meat on the bone which I knew I could salvage! I stuck the pieces into a plastic bag and froze it for when I had other remnants perfect for a good, hearty dish - and when some end-of-the-line baby carrots, half a gigantic onion, a sad-looking tomato and a Thai chili from the back of our fridge (that had been there since the summer and was still good!) made themselves known I had the makings of one of his favourites - Jamaican curry stew.

Baked in a casserole for 2 hours, this melange of spicy gravy, vegetables and lamb comes out meltingly
tender and rich. Being made of "bits and pieces", it also doesn't make a ton of food (even though it just gets better the next day), and the whole thing is not only gluten, nut, egg, refined sugar and dairy-free, but it is deceptively low in fat and filled with fibre!